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llywelaDays four and five of last week's little adventure with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
galathea_snb and nikkimisplaced is where my usual picspamming binge hits a slight hurdle in that all the photos I took on those two days were accidentally deleted from my camera before they were safely transferred to the harddrive. It was completely and utterly my own fault and I've been kicking myself ever since.
Luckily,galathea_snb and nikkimisplaced came to the rescue and have shared their photos with me, so all the images below were taken by one or other of them, rather than by me. Thanks, guys!
On the Thursday of last week, we decided to have a complete change of pace by driving to Bath for the day - a very different experience than our rural wanderings of the rest of the week! Thanks are owed to the ever lovelybagpuss1966 for advice on where best to park and recommendations for where to visit. We decided to go for the full tourist experience, taking in the Roman Baths, Bath Abbey and the Jane Austen Museum...which is quite a lot of culture for one day!
Then on the Friday, we finally took our postponed trip to Flatholm Island, and if weather conditions had been adverse on the Wednesday, they were pretty much perfect on the Friday - it was overcast, sure, but the Bristol Channel was as flat as a millpond!
The day's adventure started at the Cardiff Bay Barrage, where we boarded the Lewis Alexander and travelled through the sea lock out into the open waters of the Bristol Channel
The boat ride to Flatholm takes about half an hour
Because Flatholm has no natural harbour, the Lewis Alexander has a specially reinforced hull that allows it to ground itself on the beach alongside the jetty so that passengers can disembark...which means that travelling times are calculated by the tide. On the day we were travelling, the boat left Cardiff Bay slightly behind schedule...yet managed to get to Flatholm slightly ahead of schedule, so that with the tide not quite in optimal position, we were taken for a full circuit of the island before disembarking.
Then it was all ashore for an active afternoon spent exploring the island, mostly clambing around its outermost edges
The island offers a lovely view across to its sister island, Steepholm
Hard though it may be for those of us who live in coastal towns/cities to believe, gulls are fast becoming endangered due to the destruction of their natural nesting sites. Flatholm is, therefore, preserved as a very important natural habitat for gulls and is home to large breeding colonies - there are gulls everywhere you look!
The island is also home to two strictly segregated sheep colonies and a handful of pigs
The old cholera isolation hospital on the island has fallen into wrack and ruin, as have most of the old gun batteries, which were first built in the 19th century and then re-fortified and re-used during the Second World War
The old barracks building is still in use, however, housing the smallest pub in Wales - the Gull and Leek, which is smaller than my sitting room! Alas, the photo I took of ranger Sam serving at the bar in the tiny, tiny pub was lost in the Great Deleting Catastrophe of last weekend.
So, after an active afternoon spent exploring the island, the Lewis Alexander returned to the island to collect us and we sailed back to Cardiff once more
And that was the end of our week together! We are now already making plans for our next holiday get-together, when Chris and I plan to invade Nikki's home in Surrey and see what there is to see in that neck of the woods!
...and tomorrow I've got my sister, brother-in-law and the teenage niece arriving to stay for about a week and a half. Wish me luck!
galathea_snb and nikkimisplaced is where my usual picspamming binge hits a slight hurdle in that all the photos I took on those two days were accidentally deleted from my camera before they were safely transferred to the harddrive. It was completely and utterly my own fault and I've been kicking myself ever since.Luckily,
galathea_snb and nikkimisplaced came to the rescue and have shared their photos with me, so all the images below were taken by one or other of them, rather than by me. Thanks, guys!On the Thursday of last week, we decided to have a complete change of pace by driving to Bath for the day - a very different experience than our rural wanderings of the rest of the week! Thanks are owed to the ever lovely
bagpuss1966 for advice on where best to park and recommendations for where to visit. We decided to go for the full tourist experience, taking in the Roman Baths, Bath Abbey and the Jane Austen Museum...which is quite a lot of culture for one day! Then on the Friday, we finally took our postponed trip to Flatholm Island, and if weather conditions had been adverse on the Wednesday, they were pretty much perfect on the Friday - it was overcast, sure, but the Bristol Channel was as flat as a millpond!
The day's adventure started at the Cardiff Bay Barrage, where we boarded the Lewis Alexander and travelled through the sea lock out into the open waters of the Bristol Channel
The boat ride to Flatholm takes about half an hour
Because Flatholm has no natural harbour, the Lewis Alexander has a specially reinforced hull that allows it to ground itself on the beach alongside the jetty so that passengers can disembark...which means that travelling times are calculated by the tide. On the day we were travelling, the boat left Cardiff Bay slightly behind schedule...yet managed to get to Flatholm slightly ahead of schedule, so that with the tide not quite in optimal position, we were taken for a full circuit of the island before disembarking.
Then it was all ashore for an active afternoon spent exploring the island, mostly clambing around its outermost edges
The island offers a lovely view across to its sister island, Steepholm
Hard though it may be for those of us who live in coastal towns/cities to believe, gulls are fast becoming endangered due to the destruction of their natural nesting sites. Flatholm is, therefore, preserved as a very important natural habitat for gulls and is home to large breeding colonies - there are gulls everywhere you look!
The island is also home to two strictly segregated sheep colonies and a handful of pigs
The old cholera isolation hospital on the island has fallen into wrack and ruin, as have most of the old gun batteries, which were first built in the 19th century and then re-fortified and re-used during the Second World War
The old barracks building is still in use, however, housing the smallest pub in Wales - the Gull and Leek, which is smaller than my sitting room! Alas, the photo I took of ranger Sam serving at the bar in the tiny, tiny pub was lost in the Great Deleting Catastrophe of last weekend.
So, after an active afternoon spent exploring the island, the Lewis Alexander returned to the island to collect us and we sailed back to Cardiff once more
And that was the end of our week together! We are now already making plans for our next holiday get-together, when Chris and I plan to invade Nikki's home in Surrey and see what there is to see in that neck of the woods!
...and tomorrow I've got my sister, brother-in-law and the teenage niece arriving to stay for about a week and a half. Wish me luck!
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-19 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-19 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-19 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-19 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-22 11:07 am (UTC)I've never been to Flatholm! After all my years living in various parts of Cardiff the furthest I've got is the Barrage, and even then I didn't get the chance to have a proper look around. It's on my List Of Things To Do, of course, but it's a long list and seems to get longer every year. One day...
Meanwhile, thanks for posting your photos. At least now I've got a bit of an idea what the island looks like :)